Luke's, Wednesday

[vdistinctive]

So. Things in Eliot's personal life had gotten -- let's say "weird" -- since the whole "lured into the woods and forced to reckon with your past misdeeds" thing. Hardison was off getting some space (after getting a little bit of an attitude about Eliot doing exactly the same thing), leaving Eliot and Parker home to pretend none of it had even happened, and Eliot still hadn't managed to touch base with his damn kid, save for a few simple texts letting the other know when they were heading out of town.

So yeah. Eliot was just a little bit of a mess right now. And since hitting and breaking things was part of why he was a mess, he was dealing the only other way he knew how: by taking over the kitchen and cooking the hell out of some food.

Much to his staff's dismay.

"I need three more pounds of ground lamb and four more onions, stat!" he ordered. "And someone get that damned mynock back into the freezer!"

"Yes, chef!" The busboy yelled, running back and forth across the kitchen with a butterfly net. "On it, chef!" said the dishwasher, heading into the dry storage for the onions. "I'm not calling you 'chef'," said the cook. Then shrank back when Eliot shot him a glare. "But I'll get the lamb."

And he fled into the cooler.

Today's specials
Fresh-made manti
Poğaça
Halva

Luke's was open.

Comments

Mod your service

[vdistinctive]

Try the kebab!

Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

He's the grumpy man in the kitchen covered in flour.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[imafuturist]

"Bit of a Master Chef theme today?" Tony called out after a moment studying the general mood of the place.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"That's redundant," Eliot said. "'Chef' literally means 'guy in charge'."

He was in one of his "I'm pretending I don't own a television" moods, sorry Tony.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[imafuturist]

Tony did live with a guy who regularly pretended to be more olde timey than he actually was, so that wasn't too bad.

"Do you cringe when I say 'shrimp scampi'?" he asked.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

Eliot sighed. "You just here to irritate me, or what?"

Re: Talk to Eliot

[imafuturist]

Tony laughed and shook his head. "Looking for lunch, actually. And then a to-go order so large I'll probably need a cart to get it home so Steve doesn't starve to death."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"That, I can help you with," Eliot said. "You into the Turkish theme, or you prefer something a little more mainstream?"

Re: Talk to Eliot

[imafuturist]

"Turkish sounds good to me," Tony replied with a wave of his hand. "It has been ages since I last had any."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded, signalling to the cook to take over where he was working at the counter. "Me neither," he admitted. "And I had a hankerin' to make some pasta." Hence putting in the time to make little tiny lamb dumplings, yes. "Next batch of manti should be ready in a minute or two, or I can get some kebabs on the grill. Or I guess both for your take-out."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[imafuturist]

"I'll have the manti, for the rest... honestly whatever you feel like making," Tony said, watching him work with interest. "I have no idea how you manage. I always end up getting distracted when I try to cook."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shrugged. "It's meditative. 'Specially the really complicated stuff." Like making his own fresh pasta from scratch, for instance. "Whatever else I got going on, I can put it into the cooking, make it turn out nice."

Not a lot of Eliot's life when he'd started cooking turned out nice.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[imafuturist]

And tiny, tiny dumplings. God help him.

"That makes sense," Tony replied, nodding along with it. "I tend to lose myself in coding or designing."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was in the (very slow) process of moving back upstairs, caught between not wanting to stay in the new-old place all by herself and not wanting to leave all the memories for the re-new place again. Which meant sleeping upstairs and then dawdling during the day at Apocalypse, pretending she was packing while...not really doing that.

Lunchtime came around a lot earlier than this ping did because I am shit at days and she figured she could combine a trip back to the apartment to drop off an armload of winter clothes and a trip to the diner for lunch.

"Oh," Kathy said, blinking at Eliot when she came down the stairs. "...Don't you normally work Mondays?"

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"I run the joint, darlin', I work any of the days I want." Eliot wiped his hands on a dish towel and set it aside. "You lookin' for some lunch?"

Did she want him to make himself scarce so she could eat it in peace?

Re: Talk to Eliot

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah," she said, lingering in the doorway, like the ghost of the girl she'd been. "Whatever you're cooking smells good."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"Poğaça," Eliot said. "Turkish savory roll with feta. The manti's got lamb, but if you're willing to stick around and wait, I could put together a veggie version."

By making individual tiny dumplings. Just for her. That was a normal dad thing, right?

Re: Talk to Eliot

[spin_kick_snap]

"I...I'm not in a hurry," she said, ducking her head. "If you don't mind."

And maybe even try one with the lamb. It smelled like there were enough spices that it could possibly get past her kneejerk 'no' response.

"I'm just moving stuff," she added, lamely. "A break sounds nice."

All that moving of one whole suitcase was exhausting.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"Breaks are good," Eliot said, picking up the rolling pin. "You want to come see how it works? Fresh pasta's a whole . . . thing."

And it'd be nice to spend time with her, even if it was unbearably awkward.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded, taking a few halting steps forward. Then a searching look, like she wasn't certain she believed the invitation was genuine, and she crossed into the kitchen. "Never made my own before," she said. "Pasta, I mean. Doesn't it take a long time?"

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"It requires a bit of patience" Eliot said, picking up a round blob of pasta dough and setting it in the center of the floured space on the counter. "But it's a lot faster than making bread, like for the rolls. No yeast, so it doesn't have to sit for as long after you mix it up." He broke off a small piece of the pasta dough and offered it to her. "It's a simple recipe, just flour, egg, salt, and water. I can show you the mixing part some time, if you want."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy took it, rubbing it between her fingers because she was pretty sure he didn't want her to eat it. "Mrs. Park upstairs used to make her own dumpling dough," she mentioned. "A lot like that, I think. She used to baby-sit us sometimes when we were younger and I'd watch."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah, this stuff shows up in lots of cultures," Eliot said with a nod. "You ever ask if you could help her out with them?"

Re: Talk to Eliot

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy shook her head. "Too shy to ask," she admitted ruefully. "Mom always said that we were supposed to behave ourselves and not pester her when we were there. Asking counted as pestering, I guess. At least in my head."

OOC

[vdistinctive]

Dammit, I made myself hungry again.